In some ways, it has been the longest political honeymoon in post-colonial African politics, but, more than a decade after the democratic triumph of the Africa National Congress (ANC) and its leader, Nelson Mandela, the storm clouds are beginning to

In October 2006, the then justice minister and Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell gave a speech in Malahide, Co Dublin. It was the beginning of the early run-up to the general election due some six months later and McDowell was seeking to